Garment-stretcher.



0. 'STARKE.

GARMENT STRETGHER.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT.13, 1912.

L?4,66 l Patented Oct. 7, 1913.

any 3 d a CARL ST'ARKE, OF HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY.

GARMENT-STRETCHER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 7, 1913.

. Application filed September 13, 1912. Serial No. 720,143.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, CARL STARKE, a citizen of Germany, residing at Hoboken, county of Hudson, and State of New Jersey, have invented a. new and Improved Garment-Stretcher, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a stretcher more particularly designed for stretching and hanging trousers, though it may also be used for stretching the sleeves of coats, dresses and other garments. The stretcher is so constructed that it will place the garment under a constant tension while remaining inserted, so that the creases will become fixed, and repeated pressing is rendered unnecessary. i

In the accompanying drawing: Figure 1 is a side View of a pa r of trousers showing the stretcher applied t-hereto'; Fig. 2 a side view of the stretcher; Fig. 3 an end View thereof; Fig. 4 an enlarged section on line 4 -4, Fig. 3; Fig. 5 a similar section on line 5-5, Fig. 2, and Fig. 6 a similar section on line 66, Fig. 2.

The stretcher comprises essentially a frame A made of a continuous strip of metal or other resilient material and bent to a form that corresponds substantially to that of the trousers leg B, etc., to be stretched. Asshown, frame A comprises an upper cross bar 10, a pair of diverging shanks 11 and a pair of overlapping lower ends 12 that eXtend in parallelism to bar 10. The cross section of the strip is such that an upper and a lower flat side converge toward a rounded outer edge (Fig. 5) which is thus adapted to be tightly wedged against a crease of the garment. The upper cross bar 10 is encircled by the elongated eye 13 of a hook 14 by' means of which the device together with the garment engaged thereby, may be suspended from a suitable overhead support. The two overlapping lower ends 12 are each serrated along their outer edges as at 15 to constitute racks. U on the end of each rack is tightly fitted a tu ular sleeve 16 which loosely encom asses the other rack. Each sleeve 16 1s provi ed with downwardly extendin bearingsl? in which turn the pintles 18 0%21. dog or catch 19 adapted to engage such other rack through an aperture of the sleeve. Dog 19 is, provided with a curved resilient tail piece 20 which rests upon sleeve 16, so that by pressing upon the tail piece, the dog will be tilted to become disengaged from the rack.

In use, a pressure is exerted upon the two tail pieces 20 to uncouple the racks from each other and thus permit the lower end of frame A to contract. The latter is now slipped into the trousers leg, so as to substantially-fill the same, care being taken that the shanks 11 become accurately alined with the creases. By now moving the racks away from each other, the lower-end of frame A will become expanded until shanks 11 become tightly wedged against said creases, the frame being held in its distended position by the automatic engagement of the dogs with the racks. After a frame has been inserted into each trousers leg in the manner described, the latter is suspended from the overhead support by means of the hooks 14.

It will be seen that the stretcher will subjcct the'trousers, leg to a continuous strain from top to bottom during the entire period of its insertion, so that the creases become thoroughly defined and repeated pressing becomes unnecessary.

The device may be quickly inserted and removed and as it is adjustable at its lower open end, it may be made to accurately fit trousers of wider or narrower cut.

I claim:

A garment stretcher comprising a continuous strip of resilient material bent to form an upper cross bar, a'pair of diverging shanks and a pair of overlapping lower serrated ends, said strip having converging sides that merge into an outer rounded creasing edge, a sleeve fast on each of said ends and loosely encompassing the other end, and catches pivoted to said sleevesand provided with curved resilient tail pieces which bear against the sleeves and normally hold the catches in engagement with the serrated strip ends, while upon a compression of the tail pieces, the catches are simultaneously withdrawn from said ends.

CARL sTARKE. 

